A black-and-white silver halide photographic material is generally processed, after having been exposed, by a process comprising development, fixation, washing and drying. Recently, the process is mostly carried out using automatic processors. In general, the development of the material with such an automatic processor is effected with replenishing a predetermined amount of a developer in proportion to the area of the material being processed. It has heretofore been desired to obtain stable photographic properties of the material as developed and processed in this manner. It has also been desired to reduce the amount of the replenisher per the unit area of the material being processed, while still obtaining stable photographic properties of the processed material. Heretofore, when a so-called sheet-like photographic material, such as, an X-ray photographic material or graphic art photographic material is processed, it is the general practice to replenish a replenisher to the developer in the ratio of an amount of 250 ml or more, especially 330 ml or more, to one m.sup.2 of the material being processed.
However, since the waste from photographic development has a high chemical oxygen demand (C.O.D.) or has a high biological oxygen demand (B.O.D.), chemical or biological treatment is normally applied to the waste, so as to make it non-toxic prior to draining the waste. Since such treatment of the photographic waste material is a great economic burden on the users, a development method requiring addition of a reduced amount of replenisher to the developer is desired.